WEBVTT

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This is your daily reminder. God has not run

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out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome

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to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome. Today is

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Wednesday, March the 18th. I am excited about

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the episode that is ahead of us. If you're new

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around here, be sure and like and subscribe and

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follow and all the things so you don't miss an

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episode. And as always, if you would like to

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support financially this podcast, you can do

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so in the link in the description below. Now

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on to the episode today, we are in Romans chapter

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three in our reading time today. One beautiful,

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beautiful place of scripture. Paul Romans chapter

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3. specifically about the middle toward the end

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of the chapter. I hope you read the whole thing

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today, as is our reading plan. It suggests to

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do that. The first part of Romans 3, maybe if

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you're new to Bible study or you're new to Bible

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reading, you may think, what is happening here?

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He's kind of going back and forth. Because of

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this unfaithfulness, does that make God faithful?

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If more unfaithfulness happens, is God more faithful?

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If this happens, is this? It's a little bit of

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contrast in what's going on. I want to give a

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little bit of understanding. so that we can kind

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of have a same base of knowledge as we continue

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on. So the beginning of this text is Paul saying

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to the people that are combating his... connection

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to God and his mission. There's some Jewish leaders

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that are disagreeing with Paul and saying that

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Paul's not giving the full story because he's

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not pushing the Jewish culture and the Jewish

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traditions as much. There's a belief that you

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still have to become a Jew in order to be a Christian.

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And Paul begins this section of this letter.

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Remember, he writes the whole letter. He doesn't

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break it up into the chapters and the verses

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like we have today. That's just for our reference

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points. So there's a whole flow that's going

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on. You know, I would say to go ahead and read

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chapter 2 and then read chapter 4 as well, but

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we're trying to make this as significant and

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as specific as possible. In this, he begins to

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talk about what the arguments are from the Jewish

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people. In the first couple of verses, he makes

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a profound statement. If you're reading in Romans

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3, you may hear him say, to begin with, he says,

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what advantage does the Jew have? Is there a

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real advantage? They say, well, but you have

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to have the Jewish culture. You have to be a

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Jew in order to get all of the advantages of

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Christ. Well, Paul says, what advantage do they

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have? And he says, well, the one advantage I

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will say that they had was they had the Scriptures

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entrusted to them from a young age. The Gentile

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people didn't have that. So they had the entire

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Old Testament that they were brought up on, which

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gave more understanding to the revelation of

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who Jesus is. So Paul said that was a benefit.

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But outside of that, starting earlier and getting

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a little more knowledge of concealed truth from

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the Old Testament, Jesus is for everybody. He's

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for everybody. Then Paul begins to make a case.

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The case he makes, specifically from verses 10

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all the way down to verse 8, I'm going to pick

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up and read verses 19 and following, but from

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verses 10 to 18, Paul explains that every person

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that has ever lived is sinful and deserves the

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wrath of God. He talks in here a little bit about

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the law and what the law does. The law exposes

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the sin, right? Law is there so that you know

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what sin is. You know what right and wrong is.

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You know how to discern between what is good

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and what is not good. That's why the law is there.

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It reveals to us. places that we fall short.

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And so one of the things I want to read is found

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in Romans chapter 3, down in verse number 19.

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Here's where I want to start today. So follow

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along with me. Now we know that whatever the

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law says, it speaks to those who are under the

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law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the

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whole world may be held accountable to God. For

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by works of the law no human being will be justified

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in his sight, since through the law comes the

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knowledge of sin. That's what I was kind of trying

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to explain just a second ago. The law gives us

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the knowledge and understanding of what sin is.

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Now, just so you're aware, from verses 9 or 10

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down to verse 18, Paul gives 14 different areas

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where he exposes the human heart into the reason

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the human heart and the actions and the behaviors

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done by man is sinful and it's outside of God's

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perfect plan and his holiness. So he's just explained

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in a few verses 14 different places the law has

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exposed us. Meaning, as soon as you realize it,

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you realize you don't have anything to stand

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on. You've got no leg to stand on. You can't

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talk your way out of this. That's why he says

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all the mouths will be shut. Once you understand,

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you really examine your heart, examine your life,

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see the places that you have fallen short, and

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there's nothing you can say to God. You can't

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say, well, but I did this instead, but I was

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this, but I was that. Paul says, every person,

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we've all fallen under this because the law has

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given us the knowledge of what sin is and what

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holiness is, and we have all fallen short. He

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continues on. I want to read the next few verses

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just so that we are all aware here. He says in

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verse 21, But now, you know, one of the things

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I want to stop there and just say, there's a

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lot of places in the scripture, specifically

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in the New Testament, where we'll hear the word,

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but, and that word is in there and it kind of

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is like a hinge on a door, right? There is a

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small hinge that's on a door and it moves this

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whole big door and it gives this swing or this

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change. And that word, but is one of those that

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gives a big change, right? He's just said, we're

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all doomed. We're all doomed. God is righteous.

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He's holy. We are not. Here's 14 different swinging

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statements of how sin is in all of our hearts.

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There's nobody that is outside of this sin in

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the human race, in the fallen race of Adam. We

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are all slaves to this sin. Every one of us,

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we've had these problems. We've had this issue.

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It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or if you're

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a Gentile. We're all under this curse of sin

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in verse 21. But now. The righteousness of God

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has been manifested apart from the law, although

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the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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I want to stop right there. What does that mean,

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the law and the prophets have borne witness to

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it? What he's saying is, this is the plan from

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the beginning. God had a plan from the very beginning

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that the law was going to reveal who Jesus would

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be. The prophets are going to speak of who Jesus

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would be. All of those pieces, all of those things

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are now, I like to say sometimes that the Old

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Testament is truth concealed. New Testament is

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truth revealed, right? The Old Testament is this

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truth that you couldn't see all fully yet. You

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couldn't see it in color. You couldn't see it

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in the shapes and the sizes. But what happened

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was Jesus came in the New Testament and he bore

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witness to it. He was the one that it was all

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bearing witness to. The law bore witness to Christ.

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The prophets bore witness to Christ. Even in

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the Old Testament, it revealed who Jesus was

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going to be. And I love the thought that he's

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just said there was a great benefit for the Jew,

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and it was that they had the Old Testament. They

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got to see and they were primed and helped understood

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what this would look like whenever it got here.

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And they didn't realize that it looked like Jesus

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at first. He keeps going. Listen to this. The

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righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ

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for all who believe. For there is no distinction.

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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory

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of God and are justified by his grace as a gift

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through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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whom God put forward as a propitiation by his

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blood to be received by faith. This was to show

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God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance,

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he had passed over former sins. It was to show

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his righteousness at the present time so that

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he might be just and the justifier of the one

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who has faith. in Jesus. There's much more in

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that chapter, and I hope and pray you read it

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all today. But I just wanted to encourage you

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and give you maybe a little new mercy today.

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There is all this pointed to Jesus, every bit

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of it. From the law that exposes who we are and

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our sinfulness also exposed who Jesus is, the

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perfect holy one. He never failed. He never fell

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short of the law. The prophets all pointed to

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Christ. And everybody was thinking the prophets

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were pointing to some military leader. No, no,

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no. It was pointed to Jesus, the one who would

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be king over everything. Not just to come in

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and take over a small portion of things, but

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to come in and reign with total authority and

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total power. I want to encourage you today. Find

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the places in your life that don't look like

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God. How do you do that? By looking at the law.

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Look at the law, how holy all of God is. Look

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at the things in your life that don't align with

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that, right? Now, here's the good news for all

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of us. It's not by our works that we're justified.

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It's by Jesus's works. It says we are justified

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not by what we do, but what Christ did. We have

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faith in Christ. We've all fallen short of God's

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glory. No matter where you were born, when you

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were born, what decade, what time, what you look

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like, what you sound like, that doesn't matter.

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We've all fallen short of the perfect glory of

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God. But we are justified by faith. this Jesus

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we have a hope today we have a freedom today

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we have an excitement today and I hope and pray

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that you have a smile on your face realizing

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that you had no hope but Jesus gave you everything

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you could possibly ever dream of that is the

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truth of the scripture today everything the law

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and prophets pointed to is a gift that we have

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now received go and live like it today